Looking Familiar

For those of us old enough to recall Watergate, the current, widening scandal in Washington is beginning to look familiar. Now, as then, events established a pattern in which it seemed that some new revelation surfaced almost every day. There are differences, of course. For one thing, this scandal is based primarily at the congressional level. For another, there are parallel revelations about the executive branch (domestic spying, declarations that the President doesn't have to abide by laws passed by Congress, etc., etc.).

The latest, as you've probably heard, is that another former aide to Tom DeLay has pleaded guilty. Tony Rudy, who was DeLay's deputy chief of staff (who knew a congressman needed a chief of staff and a deputy chief of staff?) before crossing the street to work for Jack Abramoff, admitted to conspiring with Abramoff. Actually, it sounds worse than that. According to press reports, Rudy admitted taking money from Abramoff while working for DeLay, then using his influence to help stop a bill that Abramoff's clients opposed. That sounds like bribery, although Rudy's lawyers say that he's admitted only to soliciting a "gift."

The charges to which Rudy pleaded do not involve DeLay directly, but they represent more bad news for embattled Republican Congressman Bob Ney of Ohio. The indictment charges that Rudy provided "things of value" to a congressman identified as "Congressman No. 1," but widely thought to be Ney, in return for agreement to assist Abramoff and his clients. Ney has been previously implicated in the fraud to which Abramoff pleaded guilty in Florida, and has been named in other scandals.

And there's more. It seems that DeLay's former chief of staff, Ed Buckham, looted the so-called non-profit he created to advocate for a pro-family political agenda. According to the Washington Post, Buckham and his wife got a third of what the U.S. Family Network collected over five years--more than a cool million. In Buckham's defense, I suppose you could say that the organization did follow it's pro-family agenda--for his own family.

You may recall, too, that it was the U.S. Family Network that sold a Washington townhouse to Republican Rep. Jim Ryun in a sweetheart deal.

I have a feeling that we've only begun to hear about what's been going on in Washington.